Unauthorized Agam Piece Disputed

The municipality took legal action this week to remove a controversial Holocaust memorial sculpture from its location at the Western Wall, triggering a personal attack on Mayor Teddy Kollek by former Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who placed the work on top of his Adra Yeshiva.

Goren charged that the Mayor’s hatred of Orthodoxy was behind the legal action. Kollek rejected Goren’s charge as spurious and insulting. He said his record proved his sensitivity to the needs of the city’s Orthodox population.

But the sculpture was erected without the requisite municipal licenses. It has been criticized for aesthetic reasons. Artist Yaakov Agam defended his work. It may be an “illegitimate child” but “even when a bastard is born, you don’t kill him,” Agam said.